Rebel Heart

Madonna - Rebel Heart
Critic Score
Based on 33 reviews
2015 Ratings: #817 / 1021
User Score
Based on 849 ratings
2015 Rank: #625
Liked by 35 people
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CRITIC REVIEWS

80
AllMusic

The ambition remains, along with the hunger to remain on the bleeding edge, but she's allowing her past to mingle with her present, allowing her to seem human yet somewhat grander at the same time.

76
Paste
This new batch of songs feels and sounds raw and powerful, like the woman herself, if occasionally a little hamfisted.
70
Drowned in Sound

The idea of Madonna as an indestructible spirit of pop runs rampant through her mostly excellent thirteenth studio album Rebel Heart, a record whose strengths are timeless and whose faults are somewhat more modern.

70
Billboard

Her essential interests are unchanging -- dancefloor ecstasy, European balladry, 1960s pop classicism -- but her expression of them finds new articulations.

70
Slant Magazine

There are moments throughout Rebel Heart where Madonna carves out new, exhilarating territory for both herself and mainstream pop at large.

70
Rolling Stone

Rebel Heart is a long, passionate, self-referential meditation on losing love and finding purpose in chilling times.

70
musicOMH

For all its flaws, there’s something undeniably addictive about Rebel Heart, and even the songs that don’t work so well are still a million times better than anything gathered on MDNA or Hard Candy.

67
A.V. Club

Madonna endures because she’s never been afraid to own her imperfections, and be emotionally forthright about, well, everything. Rebel Heart finds her doing both of those things, and the music is better for it.

65
The Line of Best Fit

Rebel Heart is chaotic. It’s often amazing, and occasionally crap .If she deleted half of its tracks, it’d be the comeback record she was hoping for.

60
Mojo

Rebel Heart is the first Madonna album for a while that's at least as much for listeners as it is for dancers. Sometimes this shines too hard a light on what she has to say.

60
Uncut

Rebel Heart almost gets the balance right, but at 19 tracks, most in the industrial party-pop style of cheeseball producers Diplo and Avicii, there's simply too much going on.

60
The Guardian

Rebel Heart is that long because it is essentially two separate albums. One is wistful and thick with reflections on failed love affairs and intimations of self-doubt ... The other offers dirty talk and defiant I’m-still-here snarls set to EDM-inspired productions, frequently the handiwork of Diplo.

60
Time Out London
‘Rebel Heart’ may lack cohesion, but she’s definitely not down for the count: this contains some of the best music Madonna’s made in a decade.
60
SPIN

Even in the record's clunkier moments, it's gratifying to hear Madonna leaning defiantly (and gleefully) into what many would consider to be the less savory elements of her personality. 

60
PopMatters

Rebel Heart has a profoundly human element to it, one that paints Madonna more as a person than a product, which is in and of itself a minor miracle.

58
Pretty Much Amazing

For every godawful moment, which come and go with a sad frequency on Rebel Heart, there are glimmers of virtuosity buried within the overworked mess.

51
Pitchfork

Rebel Heart grows confusing and irreconcilably uneven as it progresses.

50
Consequence of Sound

Rebel Heart leans too steeply into too many trends at once, making it a scattered affair that flashes between drudgery and brilliance.

50
NME
‘Rebel Heart’ finds 56-year-old Madonna still trying to pass herself off as a teenager. It’s a disconnect that has become increasingly grating.
oieusourick
69

A proposta do Coração Rebelde da Madonna era mostrar nas faixas a dualidade da cantora, que possui um lado selvagem e corajoso e também um lado romântico e sensível, mas o disco acaba se perdendo nesse conceito e se tornando apenas uma playlist de pop desorganizada.

A falta de coesão nesse trabalho é até de se estranhar vindo de uma artista do naipe da Madonna que em álbuns anteriores se esforçava para manter a mesma ... read more

EduFurlan
70

Por mais que hajam músicas boas, em conjunto "Rebel Heart" é uma bagunça.

"Rebel Heart", funciona como um testamento da carreira de Madonna, tudo que ela sempre se mostrou por tantos anos de carreira se revelam nas decorrentes 19 faixas, ao mesmo tempo que ainda abre espaço para a sua vulnerabilidade pessoal - o que faz dessas faixas, principalmente da edição deluxe serem as melhores, e estranhamente até as ... read more

melencholysumme
76

dated and annoying at worst, nostalgic at best

sinnergetready
59

it’s fun

twigsxivan
66

I enjoyed the first half a lot because of the diversity of sounds, however, the second half sounds like MDNA outtakes and everything is very repeated.
Although, I deeply appreciate that you left out vocoder and autotune.

Favorites:Living For Love, Ghosttown, Hold Tight, Joan Of Arc, HeartBreakCity
Least Favorite: Illuminati

lhskrma
80

WE KNEW IT FROM THE START DEEP DOWN FROM OUR REBEL HEARTS! The queen of pop's 2015 album is decent at best. Rebel Heart is not every fan's favorite album, but I liked listening to this album. It's not as bad as everyone says it is, because it's actually listenable and the message is worth listening to. My only problem in this album is that some of them felt like fillers or bland tracks. I also didn't like how autotuned Madonna's voice because I really love her natural voice, and I think it ... read more

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Track List

1Living For Love
3:38
84
2Devil Pray
4:05
81
3Ghosttown
4:09
87
4Unapologetic Bitch
3:51
65
5Illuminati
3:44
59
6Bitch I'm Madonna
3:47
72
7Hold Tight
3:37
70
8Joan of Arc
4:01
78
9Iconic
4:33
64
10HeartBreakCity
3:33
72
11Body Shop
3:39
60
12Holy Water
4:09
65
13Inside Out
4:23
70
14Wash All Over Me
4:01
73
Total Length: 55 minutes

Year End Lists

#10/Digital Spy
#10/People
#16/Popjustice
#45/Rolling Stone
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Added on: December 22, 2014